The stock exhaust on my 2001 ZX3 does not have many days left. The whole thing from the cat to the tip is rotting here and there along the way. I figure I might as well put in an aftermarket stainless catback. I'm a college student, so money is short, very short. Thus, I really want to spend as little as possible on the new exhaust. I don't want to have a junky sounding "fart cannon" exhaust though. So what are my best options to save money without sacrificing performance and sound? My local O'Reilly carries the Magnaflow (http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/de...3387&ppt=C0022) and Flowmaster (http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/de...3387&ppt=C0022) systems. From the sound of videos, they seem too harsh, lacking a rich tone like the borla system for the SVT. The magnaflow sounds pretty good, much better than the Flowmaster imo. I'm worried about the noise level though. You can get a ticket for making too much noise where I live.

focusmaniaczx3

08-18-2012 11:05 AM

run 2 mufflers with 2.5 inch piping. i suggest dynomax. i think it was advanced or autozone that carries that brand muffler. nice sounding 3 chamber muffler. i only ran 1 dynomax and 1 thrush resonator in my setup because i like it a little louder. ignore the weird vibrating/buzzing sound at idle. i dont know what the heck that is but i can only pick up that sound on my camera and not in person.http://i426.photobucket.com/albums/p...h_MOV00323.jpg

Sounds very nice! You must have used a reducer on the flex pipe to go from 2" to 2.5" then, right?

focusmaniaczx3

08-19-2012 08:29 PM

no reducer, i actually replaced the stock flex pipe with a 2.5 inch flex pipe way way back when. however the flex pipe has a flange on the end of it which the 2.5in exhaust can be bolted to. all you need is a 2.5 inch pipe with the correct flange to mate to the flex pipe which any muffler/exhaust shop should have.

all4focus

08-20-2012 01:36 PM

I see. For the ease of things, and the fact that this will probably have to be done in one day some weekend during the busy school year, I'm really leaning toward just going with the Magnaflow. It's readily available locally, it should be easy enough to install, and the sound in videos is growing on me. They claim it's dyno-proven to increase performance too, whether or not that is actually true.

focusmaniaczx3

08-20-2012 04:46 PM

if the diameter of the piping is larger than stock then it will increase performance.

Smmy15643

08-20-2012 08:45 PM

id deffinitly go with a 2.25 inch magna flow i personally like these better for lower powered focuses or ones you dont plan to do much in the way of performance on

all4focus

08-21-2012 07:01 PM

Have you used the magnaflow catback yourself? How much louder is it than stock? Sure sounds a lot louder in videos. I really like the tone and the noticeable, but not excessive crackling, but the only thing I worry about is noise. I've also removed the snorkel and resonator from the air filter box to make a poor man's short ram/semi-cold-air intake, which already makes it quite loud when I step on it.

the camera was way to close for this but what i had was m2 header 2.5" flex and 3" straight all the way back, the exhaust is magnaflow. i have other vids on youtube also of driving with the exhaust. i have the svt header now and i am putting on a resonator accompanied with my high flow cat, so its going to sound way different here in a couple of weeks ill obviously post vids, if you dont decide before then